Return of the Worlds Walker
by ElSijo
Summary: Original character fic about an interdimensional adventurer. Will contain many crossovers.


_**Return of the Worlds-Walker**_

**Chapter 1: Drifting**

The void was white, and dotted with what resembled, from a distance, multicolored stars.

In fact, however, they were holes, each showing a view of a different place, some earthlike, others totally alien.

Floating somewhere in this place that was not a place, but rather the space between all of them, was the figure of a man. He had short dark hair and eyes, and wore modern clothes, a dull brown in color.

Most people might be baffled in these conditions, but from his expression you could tell that he took it totally in stride. In fact, he looked- bored. And annoyed.

He sighed. He used to be thrilled, every time he stepped into The Crossroads, as he called this place. He had been doing it nearly all his life. But of late, the thrill seemed to be diminishing. Why?

Maybe that was it? That he'd been walking between worlds so long that now it was losing its appeal?

The idea scared him. Probably because it was all he had. He had no family of his own, no job, no responsibilities, no plans for life- he just assumed he'd wander until the end of his days, and was content with that.

Had he been wrong? If he was, then what? Settling into a normal life still didn't appeal to him, either.

Dammit, how to deal with this? Physical enemies, he could handle. Even monsters of all kinds. But the unbearable lightness of being, he'd never faced.

His mind went back to how it all began: he must have been about 6 years old. He came from a perfectly normal American family. Then one day, while playing in a field, he found a Fairy Circle, a natural plant formation believed to be formed by fairies when they danced at night, thus the name. In reality, the circles were portals to the Land of The Fairies, which was in another dimension. It just happened to be unusable to normal humans. Unless they had some special ability that allowed them to use it.

And he just happened to have it.

Before he even realized what had happened, he had stepped into the other universe. At first he thought he was lost, and wandered the strange woods until he saw a sight beyond his belief: a tiny human-like person, being dragged along obviously against her will by some bug-like creatures. Offended by this, he grabbed a stick and rushed the creatures, to which he was a virtual giant. They turned tail and ran, leaving the elflike girl to his mercy.

After reassured her that he meant her no harm, he explained that he was a human boy named Sijo, and that he was lost; she told him that she was a Brownie named Blossom, and her captors were Grigs, her people's natural enemies, and that he was in a different world now. At first he didn't understand what she meant, so she told him that the Elder of her people could explain better, so she led him there.

The elder explained that there were many worlds, of which Earth was just one, all existing in the same place and at the same time, but you could only be 'in tune' with one at a time, the rest being invisible. "Like TV signals?" he asked, though of course the brownies had no idea what he meant.

The Elder further explained that there were "weak spots" in the fabric of space and time. These "portals" were themselves invisible and normally unusable unless you had the right means to use them. And from what Sijo had told him, he guessed that Sijo had The Gift of The Traveler, a magical inherited ability that allowed him to do just that. Very likely one of his ancestors had been a sorcerer, or maybe an elf. If so, the boy had no idea of who it could be.

With their help, he was able to find the fairy circle again and return to his home. But when he told his story to his family, they of course didn't believe him. He tried to prove it to them by showing him how he disappeared through the circle… and they ''panicked.'' He could understand why now, but back then, he thought they were overreacting. They said magic was the Stuff of the Devil, and forbade him from ever returning there or talking about it. He was very sad about it, but obeyed his parents.

…Or at least he did while they lived. Sadly, a few years later, they both died- his father from too much smoking, and his mother from a heart attack. He went to live with a relative, a sister, but he felt a need to escape his tragedy, and then he remembered the circle. He returned to the magical world, where the brownies welcomed him back, and told him all they knew about the worlds and magic. And that's how his life as a 'Worlds walker" began, at first just secret visits, but eventually he just decided to quit life on Earth –the "normal" one anyway- and began his endless wandering, mainly to satisfy his curiosity over just what was out there, though also lending a hand to innocents when needed.

…And now here he was, literally nowhere, with no plans, and no idea where to go next. He could almost hear the Beatles song "Nowhere Man" ringing in his ears…

He shook his head. He could not let this feeling of inertia overtake him. Surely, once he had gotten his feet back into a rod somewhere, the thrill would return.

But, where to go? He could literally go ''anywhere, in any world''. His problem wasn't a lack of choices, but having too damn many.


End file.
